Asherons Call: New Transition Diary

[big]Executive Producer's Transition Diary[/big]
August 12, 2004
Time, again, to do a brief update on the transition.

There isn't a lot to report this time around; the transition is completed except the billing migration and we still expect to start that at the end of summer. However, I repeat (as I always do): We won't hesitate to delay this, if a delay will decrease the risk of issues during the migration. The last thing we want to do is screw it up, so we're going to be conservative on this one.

Turbine Nation was last weekend and it was great to get together with the players again. Several clans brought over a dozen members each and all the AC sessions were standing room only, especially the expansion pack session. The dev team members went to lunch and dinner with as many players as we could; Saturday night at the Trinity Pub in Providence saw about 30 of us crammed into a space designed for 20. Friday night, some fool at the Dave and Buster's dinner, organized by Cheryl Perlmutter, decided that over a dozen of us should chug an evil concoction called a "Lethal Weapon," which is six kinds of alcohol, including Bacardi 151 rum. I lost all feeling in my right foot and Orion, Hash and Oukane made some interesting faces, with Orion's taking the prize. And, of course, I had fun speaking at the AC Player Luncheon again, mainly because I like to hear the sound of my own voice. I didn't notice anyone fall asleep while I talked, so I guess we can call it a success of sorts, :D.

The expansion pack is in full swing, with a full team in the LA Studio cranking on code and art (some of which you'll start seeing on the web site soon). If you haven't seen the details we released, check out the presentation.

As you'll be hearing soon from other sources, we've decided to move the AC franchise out to the LA Studio. Why, you ask? Well, read the FAQ below, which Ibn put together for me, for all the juicy details.

That's it for now. Look for the next update in 2 weeks to a month, when we should have a bunch of info on the migration already posted and more details ready on the specifics.

Best,

Jessica Mulligan
Exec. producer

FAQ: AC Franchise Move to the LA Studio
Why are we moving: While the Boston/Providence area is Turbine's home base, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit talent that is willing to move to New England. The majority of the computer gaming industry in the US is based in sunny California. We want to ensure that Turbine and the Asheron's Call franchise continue to grow with top-quality developers, artists and engineers, so we're moving the AC franchise to our Santa Monica studio to help make this easier.

In addition, this will also help with communication between the AC1 Live Team and the Throne of Destiny team, not to mention making it easier for Throne of Destiny team members to move on to Live once the expansion pack is completed.

When is this happening: The AC1 Live Team will be transitioning out to Santa Monica over the next several months. We expect this to be finished by mid-December '04. The AC2 Live Team will follow sometime in the next 18-24 months.

Is everyone moving: Obviously some members of the team have homes and families in New England and have chosen not to move to California. They'll be moving to other projects at Turbine during the course of the transition. Some folks that you see regularly in the community, such as Orion and Zyrca, will be staying at our Westwood studio. Others, such as Scenario and Ibn, will be moving to California.

Once the majority of work on Throne of Destiny has been finished and the development cycle moves into QA, some members of the ToD team will be moving on to the Live Team. These include some names you've seen before, such as Srand, and others who are new to Turbine, such as Brandon Salinas. Some of you may have met Brandon at Turbine Nation.

How will this impact the game: Once the current storyline wraps up, we plan to have the traditional holiday festival season and then begin ramping up towards the Throne of Destiny release. We've timed the move schedule to impact our monthly event cycle as little as possible.

How will this impact the billing migration: At the moment, we don't expect this move to impact scheduling for the billing migration. Right now we are still shooting for the end of the summer for our billing system to be ready, but we are being extremely cautious with the migration of accounts to ensure that no data is lost. We'll be providing more info on the billing migration by the end of the month.